UNC falls to Virginia Tech in ACC tournament. Hokies snap Heels’ 6-game winning streak
The stage was set for a third North Carolina-Duke matchup, but Virginia Tech just had to go and steal the spotlight. The Hokies snapped the Tar Heels’ six-game winning streak with a 72-59 win the ACC tournament semifinals.
The Heels started off slow offensively for a second straight game. Against Virginia in the quarterfinals, they made up for not having a great shooting night by shutting down the Cavaliers offense. UNC couldn’t do the same against the Hokies.
Virginia Tech took control of the game when it started the second half on a 9-0 run to grab a 15-point lead and the Heels never really recovered.
“The 16 minute mark, I told the guys okay, let’s settle down,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “I felt like maybe they were a little bit nervous and then there were parts of the game, maybe I felt like they were a little bit tired.”
Davis said playing Virginia and Virginia Tech in consecutive games were probably the “worst two teams we could play” because of the way they both deliberately run their offenses with a lot of movement and screens.
“Both of them, from an offensive standpoint, they have a lot of movement and they don’t shoot quick shots and so you’re playing long defensive possessions,” Davis said.
The Hokies played for spans with a smaller, four guard lineup that put UNC forwards Armando Bacot and Brady Manek in difficult positions having to guard on the perimeter. It’s part of the reason why Darius Mattox, who hit the buzzer-beating 3-pointer in their 76-75 overtime over Clemson in the second round, was able to score a career-high 20 points.
The Hokies, not Carolina, advanced to play Duke in the ACC tournament championship game on Saturday night. Virginia Tech was in a similar position as Carolina was a week ago with a NCAA Tournament resume that left it in bubble conversation.
Thanks to the Heels, the Hokies should now be safely in with an at-large bid unless they earn the automatic one by winning the title.
Carolina (24-9) now will look to regroup heading into the NCAAs.
Here’s what we learned from the Heels’ loss:
3-point matters
Carolina held the Hokies 3-point shooters in check during their regular season wins, most notably holding them to 5-for-19 during its win in Blacksburg. But not only did VT shoot 9-of-20 from behind the arc, this time, Carolina was the team that couldn’t find its mark.
The Heels averaged 37 percent from 3 entering the game, but made just 3 of their first 20 attempts and finished shooting 11.5 percent. The only time they shot a lower percentage was after going 1-for-13 in their loss to Kentucky.
“In the first half, I felt like we got good looks from 3, we just missed them,” Hubert Davis said. “And then in the second half, I felt a lot of our 3s were contested and forced. They were switching out, a lot their physicality bothered us.”
What had been a strength for Carolina — that it had multiple players who are legit shooters — just meant that no one could find their range on Friday. Caleb Love, scored 22 at home against the Hokies and 21 in their win in Blacksburg, was 2-for-10. R.J. Davis went 1-for-6. Manek was 0-for-5.
Manek had made scoring look easy during the Heels six game winning streak entering Friday. He was averaging 18.3 points per game while shooting 43.9 percent from 3-point range.
Against the Hokies, his prolonged heat check came to an end. After missing his first four 3-pointers, he changed up and started going inside for baskets. He was able to finish with 10 points but he never had the game-changing shots that UNC was accustomed to seeing him make.
Confusing Bacot
Bacot recorded another double-double leading Carolina with 19 points -- on 9-for-10 shooting from the field -- and 14 rebounds. But Virginia Tech’s defense did a better job at not allowing him to get the ball more in scoring positions.
Bacot called their double team “a little weird” and “more unique from what I’ve seen.” He had two assists, but added three turnovers.
“They were coming from the baseline and then they kind of zoned up on the weak side,” Bacot said. “So early on, a lot of my reads they kind of threw off my timing and passing and stuff just because they did a good job on the weakside playing between two men so it’s kind of hard. I like going baseline. It definitely affected a lot of things we tried to get into.”
Tournament experience
Black and Manek are the only two players on UNC’s roster that have won an NCAA Tournament game. And Black is the only one who has in a Carolina uniform. He was a freshman on the 2018-19 team that advanced to the Sweet 16 before losing to Auburn.
While Manek played for Oklahoma, his teams never advanced past the first weekend. His Sooners’ teams lost to No. 1 seed Virginia as a freshman in 2019 and last season lost to No. 1 seed Gonzaga.
Carolina could be in a position where its playing in the 8-9 seed game and potentially face a No. 1 seed. Playing for and potentially winning the ACC could have changed that. But Bacot echoed Davis’ words to the team after the game, that he wanted them to be encouraged by the way they’ve been playing and not fixated on the results from Friday’s loss.
“It was disappointing just because we came here with the thought of winning a championship, but like coach said, I’m still encouraged though,” Bacot said. “We’ve done a good job all year just responding to adversity. And we’re all confident in ourselves and we’re just moving on to the next step and we’re just ready for the tournament and we’ll come prepared.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 12:01 AM.